From Indomitable Spirit to a Dominant Player

AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Jan. 17 - In the sculptured strength of his arms, Chauncey Billups speaks of his success. The tattooed words that scroll down his left triceps read, "No Pain." His right arm completes the thought: "No Fame."

These days Billups's arms move in concert, high-fiving his Pistons teammates as he directs their early-season joy ride through the N.B.A.

But he knows his odyssey of rejection and resilience -- one that has taken him through six cities and six coaches -- has not quite ended.

Billups owns an N.B.A. championship and the Most Valuable Player trophy from the 2004 N.B.A. finals. As the point guard on the league's best team -- the Pistons were 30-5 with one game to go before meeting the Knicks on Thursday -- he has even vaulted to a shortlist of regular-season M.V.P. candidates.

"I'm validating what I always felt about myself," he said, "that I could be dominant and one of the best players at my position in this league. But, obviously, I wasn't as good as I am right now."

Larry Brown molded Billups into his ideal point guard in Detroit before moving to the Knicks this season. Now, Brown's replacement, Flip Saunders, has given Billups freedom to be more of an offensive force again. Under Saunders, who five years ago in Minnesota gave Billups his first starting job, he is averaging 8.6 assists, third best in the N.B.A. and several assists more than he averaged under Brown. And Billups is averaging 19 points, after averaging 16.9 and 16.5 when Brown was in charge.

"Before the season, it's like, 'Larry's not here anymore and Chauncey's going to be shooting 25 shots a game,' " said Billups, who is actually averaging half that amount. "I think I've been able to show people my maturation, seeing that I could run a team, and get people involved and still score at the same time.

"Where last year I did those things but I wasn't credited for it; it was L. B.," Billups said, referring to Brown. "He had a lot to do with that. But I don't really get my just due some-times, for some reason."

This is the motto of the Pistons, who feel overlooked as individuals because of their team success. No one epitomizes that struggle for recognition more than Billups.

He is fourth among Eastern Conference guards in All-Star fan voting (behind Allen Iverson, Dwyane Wade and Vince Carter), but because coaches usually reward the team with the best record, they will most likely name him a reserve.

"Chauncey just believes in himself," guard Richard Hamilton said of Billups, who is known as Mr. Big Shot for his late-game accuracy. "I love it; you need somebody that confident at your lead guard. I haven't played with someone like that before who just wants it."

Billups's confidence is rooted in his family, including his high school sweetheart and wife, Piper; his mother, Faye; and his father, Ray, who wakes up at 3:30 a.m. to work in a grocery-chain warehouse. After every trade and disappointment, Faye Billups said she repeated the same advice: "Just move on."

Billups always knew when he was to be traded; he reads people the way he reads defenses. The Celtics took him out of the University of Colorado with the No. 3 pick of the 1997 draft. But in training camp, Billups sensed that the team's coach and president, Rick Pitino, had already lost faith in him. The Celtics traded him 51 games later to Toronto, starting the unraveling of his early career.

Three intersections later, when Billups was a free agent after two years in Minnesota, Joe Dumars, the Pistons' president, sensed his potential. He signed him to a six-year, $33.7 million contract in 2002.

"I thought he had N.B.A. talent, but more so than that, he never gave up," Dumars said. "When you see that in a person, you know that there's something special there. People keep telling him he can't get it done, that he's not a true point guard. I like guys like that. He's a nonstop fighter."

Early in his career, Billups rarely turned down a shot. The pressure to prove his talent peaked in his hometown, where Billups, playing a backup role for the Denver Nuggets (his third N.B.A. team), never seemed to fit.

"He was just taking so many shots," said Antonio McDyess, Billups's friend since they were on the Nuggets. "He would get into the lane, and because he didn't have anyone to pass to, he'd throw it to himself."

When Dan Issel, the Nuggets' coach and president, reassured an injured Billups that he would not be traded, Billups knew. "I came home to my wife and said, 'Baby, we're out of here,' " he said. The next day, he was traded to Orlando.

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There, Magic Coach Doc Rivers saw something in Billups, even though he was still sidelined with a separated shoulder. "The one thing that stood out was that he made every practice, every game and in every team meeting he spoke up," said Rivers, now the Celtics' coach. "And he never put on a Magic uniform."

When Minnesota signed Billups in 2000, Saunders started him for the injured Terrell Brandon and reined in Billups's aggressive mentality.

When Billups got to Detroit, Dumars made sure Billups knew his starting job was secure. With that pressure alleviated, Billups continued his progression as floor leader under Coach Rick Carlisle. Then Brown arrived and hammered the point home.

"The biggest thing with Larry, I learned I could dominate a game without scoring 25 points," Billups said. "I learned how to feel good about that."

Now he feels even better. Billups is expanding his reputation as one of the league's friendliest players by dispensing advice, joking that he should charge by the hour. He specializes in Brown interpretation.

Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury, learning to live with Brown, called Billups before the season, and they have stayed in contact; Marbury's teammate Jamal Crawford contacts Billups on a two-way pager.

"I told Steph the day Brown took the job he's got to be patient," Billups said, recalling how the Indiana Pacers' Reggie Miller and Mark Jackson gave him the same advice when Brown was hired in Detroit.

Billups warned Marbury and Crawford. "I told them that the first month, 'If you got hair, it's going to fall out,' " Billups said. "But after you start to understand Larry, understand what he wants, he's talking so much, you have to learn what to take in and when to say, 'Whatever.'

"When you understand that, your game will take off and your team is a lot better. It's going to be all right. Larry knows what he's doing."

Brown, McDyess said, helped turn Billups from good to great when the Pistons won in 2004. "He's really blossomed," McDyess said. "He thinks about winning more than numbers."

Billups can have both. He registered a career-high 37 points and a career-high 19 assists in separate games this season.

"I don't think his game has changed that much since when I had him," Saunders said. "He's gotten confidence, he's more mature, he's in a perfect situation."

Quick and bruising at 6 feet 3 inches, Billups knows when to penetrate and where to find his teammates. Hamilton curls off screens; Ben Wallace grabs offensive rebounds and sends them back to Billups beyond the arc; Rasheed Wallace rolls off picks to drain 3-pointers; and when Tayshaun Prince seems forgotten, Billups finds him in the corner.

Everyone can play like an All-Star with Billups on the court, maybe even Billups, himself, this season.

Detroit (31-5) got off to a rocky start, missing 11 of its first 16 shots. But the Pistons made 16 of 22 shots in the second quarter.

Maurice Evans, who had 12 of his 14 points in the quarter, hit a 3-pointer that gave Detroit its first doubledigit lead, 42-32, and finished with a barely contested reverse lay-in with a tenth of a second remaining for a 59-40 advantage.